Today I suddenly decided to go to Kairakuen Park in Mito. I had only been there once, many years ago, and had never seen the Plum Festival.Kairakuen is one of the three famous parks in Japan. Sorry, but right now I forget the exact details of them, but I think the one in Kanazawa is called Kourakuen. I went there one winter about 5 years ago and it was beautiful. I have no idea of the name of the third or where it is located. Anyway, Kairakuen in Mito is famous for plum blossoms and there must be thousands of trees in various shades from white to the darkest pink. The air is filled with the delicate fragrance of the blooms.
If you remember a few months ago I said I never wanted to drive to Mito again. Well, today I took the train. Just a local so it took about one hour. I was really surprised because I thought we could get off at Kairakuen Station, one stop south of Mito, but the train passed right through. Why is the station on all maps if the train doesn't stop there? Weird.We got off at Mito Station and after buying boxed lunches in the station department store, we took a bus to the park. It was so crowded as now is the peak season. Luckily the sky was perfect blue and it was reasonably warm aside from a cold wind in the open.
After walking around, we found a nice spot to have lunch, and these scenic pictures were the view from the bench we sat on. The boxed lunches were really good too!
Finally we decided to walk back to Mito Station. I didn't think it was so far, but it took about 30 minutes (walking kind of slowly!). On the way back we stopped in at a Starbucks and I had a Macha (powdered green tea) Latte. Yum!
Ah, it's now 8:30pm and I'm going to bed! The last two nights I went swimming, then walked for a few hours today - I'm exhausted and my legs are aching! But it was a nice day :)
